The assembly line worked perfectly
For factories.
Same input. Same process. Same output. Quality control at every stage.
Schools copied this model. It worked perfectly too.
For creating factory workers.
Here's what happens when you're processed:
You learn to sit still. To wait for instructions. To colour inside the lines.
You learn that different is dangerous. Questions are disruptions. The bell tells you when to think and when to stop thinking.
Most of all, you learn to wait for permission.
I watched a nine-year-old last week. She'd promised her parents she'd finish a project. It was hard for her. Really hard.
No teacher forced her. No grade threatened her.
Her classmates became her co-conspirators. They broke down the mountain together. She worked late into the nights until it was done.
Not because she had to.
Because she'd given her word.
The safe choice is the assembly line. Everyone else is doing it. No explanations needed at dinner parties.
The other path? You'll have to explain why your kid doesn't have grades. Why are they asking questions instead of memorising answers? Why are they starting businesses instead of taking tests?
Twenty years from now, there will be two kinds of adults:
Those waiting for instructions.
And those writing their own.
One group will always need someone to tell them what to do next. The other group will have been practicing for this moment since they were six.
The factory model was built for a world that needed compliance.
That world doesn't exist anymore.
But the assembly line keeps running.
And every day, we feed it more children.
Unless we don't.
